70% of Happy People Do This When They Wake Up.

I don’t like going to bed. Nor do I like getting out of it. It’s a conundrum.

My office desk is exactly 7 feet away from my bedroom. Every time I leave my office to go downstairs or outside this is what I see. Comfortable bed, napping cat, linen bedding, fluffy duvet …

It’s not that much of a temptation in the summer, but in this gutter of a season we call late winter – it’s as persuasive as a late night infomercial to an insomniac. I’ve only succumbed to the temptation once or twice and the main reason for that is not my military-like discipline. It’s the fact that my bed is already made.

If it were all a jumble of sheets and pillowy down I might be more likely to swan dive into it. But it’s made, so I continue on with my day instead of curling up to sleep. Pulling back the covers and getting into an already made bed in the middle of the day is pathetic. Whereas falling into one that’s still an unmade mess is just practical. Smartly taking advantage of a situation, really – I mean when you think about it.

That’s reason number 1 to make your bed in the morning. The other billion reasons all lead to happiness.

According to a study by Hunch.com only 27% of people make their bed. Which is too bad because

70% of people who make their beds consider themselves to be happy.

Happiness expert, Gretchen Rubin; The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg; and US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven all believe in the POWER of making your bed.

Gretchen Rubin says making your bed is also one of the most effective and easiest triggers of happiness.

Charles Duhigg describes making your bed every morning as a “keystone habit”. A way to kick start a pattern of good behaviour for the rest of the your day, week, month, life.

And yet, according to this random study that everyone on the Internet (including Psychology Today) has cited … less than 1/3rd of us make our beds.

Here’s the problem.

I can’t find any evidence of this study online. Anywhere. Everyone has cited it and even linked to it but it’s nowhere to be found. The Hunch.com study apparently polled 66,000 people to come up with these statistics.

Is it a made up poll? Was it inaccurate and therefore the whole website was forced to shut down, the researchers currently hiding under their covers? Who knows. Another poll done by the US government found that 37% of people make their beds regularly. They also seem to have found some sort of correlation between income and bed making.

The more money you make, the more likely you are to make your bed every day.

I do believe there’s something to be said for making your bed every morning if only to make getting into at night more inviting.

Of course now I have to conduct my own completely unscientific, random, probably riddled with errors poll.

Interesting timing Karen. We made our bed today but usually don’t. Most mornings i will at least pull up the duvet just to make it look neat but not throw the pillows up. I do like the neatness of the bed being made and agree with others here that it helps keep the room from turning into a disaster area.

Interestingly, at night, i would rather jump into an unmade bed than a made one. Not sure what that means…

Nope…bed doesn’t get made. I get up way before my still sleeping husband, so it is pretty hard to make the bed while he is still sleeping in it. Then he gets up at the last possible minute to get a shower and leave for work, so he never makes it either…no one is home all day to see it, so whatever.

I would also consider myself to be a happy person even with an unmade bed….

Mama always washed and changed all the bedsheets on Mondays. Sometimes I’m a rebel now and wait until Tuesday because my life is my own. I realize how many folks in the world have never had a bed or a sheet. It aches to know it and I buy bedding at thrift stores and mail it straight up to Malawi. Helps me to sleep better.

The ellyphant in the room, though..can we discuss how many people let an animal on their beds? I’m just gonna sit behind my computer and say I don’t 😉

Hi Linda. I looked into that and there’s additional research that says that’s untrue, lol. Kind of like fat is bad for you. NO it’s good for you! Eggs are bad for you. NO they’re good for you! It’s all pretty inconclusive. ~ karen!

actual making the bed i would say no i do not unless i am washing bed clothes. BUT… i do straighten the quilt, sheets and blankets so that it kind of looks made, and i do that every morning as i get out of bed, and i am a happy person though i do not make a lot of money so to speak. By the way, that speech… made me cry and now i will do my best to be a much better person. Thank you ..

Yes, bed is made in the morning after airing for about an hour. Just more inviting to get into a neat bed at night. Once the bed is made the room gets picked up and is ready for the day. If I nap it’s in my recliner. We are quite happy at our house. 🤗

Long answer is that my husband gets out of bed later than I do and no amount of asking, begging, threatening, or withholding (haha) has compelled him to make the bed. I’m off to the office before he even rolls out of bed and we’re both gone all day, so who even sees the bed. I’ve just let it go. And we don’t have pets.

PLUS… I, too, have heard about the study about the Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (DUST MITES) invading your cozy sleeping quarters, so I’ve come to accept that maybe my husband is on to something.

I’ll make it if I’m expecting guests that feel they need a tour of my home. Other than that, whatever!

Agreed. A more recent scientific response to the claims in those articles, “…homes are humid enough for dust mites to thrive anyway. “I find it hard to believe that simply not making your bed would have any impact on the overall humidity,” Professor Andrew Wardlaw, then president of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology, told the BBC.

Yes, I make my bed every morning, after coffee and before my shower. That was drummed into us as kids, and I got to the point that I don’t like getting into an unmade bed in the evening. It makes your bedroom look neater instantly too. Happy but freezing in Chicago (it finally got above 0 degrees today), so no sleeping in the nude for me.

I generally make my bed as soon as I am up but after reading all the comments, will consider airing the bed first. On a related topic, I firmly believe individual (twin sized) duvets in a queen sized bed make for a happy marriage….no struggling to keep your half of the covers. And yes, I am also generally happy.

Boy Karen have you hit on a very interesting and entertaining subject! Bed made & happy. Now after reading all these wonderful diaries, I think (am I the only one?), we should have group intervention. Can we find words to give a boost to some that experience depression? Karen, you can wax much more eloquently than I but surely there might be some fabulous ideas.

I make our bed daily, before getting dressed. And I am one of the happiest people I know, ive been making my bed for about 70 years. Not making your bed because “it will just get messed up again” is terrible logic. Like lm not showering cause I’ll just get dirty again or not eating cause I’ll just get hungry again. Making a bed sets the tone that you are organized and expect high standards in your life in every area. Even if it’s invisible to the rest of the world.

Nope, I never made my bed unless I was changing the sheets/blankets! lol However now that I have a honey, he is OCD and has to have the bed made. I do it about 25% of the time, he does is 75%. But when he is traveling, it gets done 0% of the time! lol

I personally don’t move around much once I climb into bed, there for me I just need to flip everything back in the morning an fluff the pillow bed is made. My husband on the other hand is a frigging tornado, twisting an running even the fitted sheet has no chance of holding on. We use to sleep in same bed till I had enough of freezings due to no covers , which he blamed me for taking… funny how everycover was on his side of the bed on the floor… So his has to be made each day! It’s no wonder he awakens tired, he runs a marathon in his sleep. An if you touch him to awaken him you better not be right beside him, cause he comes right off the bed like a loaded spring an you will be knocked over.

My husband makes our bed each morning and it makes me feel pampered and loved. It’s a small thing but it gives me so much joy to know he does this and I smile when I walk back in and I see this beautifully made up bed. And yes, I’m blissfully happy.

I pull the covers up. But I’m not sure that is officially making the bed. It looks slightly sloppy. (I sleep only with two small dogs. most of the bed it’s really unmade.) That said, I love it when my room has a neatly made bed. One thing about the “study.” It could just be that happy people are more likely to have good, steady habits, right? Depressed people not so much. So it’s not that bedmaking makes you happy, but that happiness leads to bedmaking?

I do make my bed every day. It’s the first accomplishment and I feel it sets the tone for the day to come. If only I didn’t hit the snooze button at least once! 😂 I also consider myself a very happy person.

Wow this post got a huge response! Who knew this would be such a hot topic!? I, too. make my bed everyday. It would drive me crazy if I walked into the bedroom and the bed was unmade. It makes me happy to see it all neat and encourages me to keep the rest of the room neat and picked up.

I fold my duvet over so my bed can air during the day. Fold it back at some point during the afternoon/evening so it is made. Not only are duvets the most cosy thing to sleep under, they also make ‘making the bed’ a 12 second chore.

I rarely make my bed. Every once in a while I make it because I know it makes my husband happy when he comes home and sees it was made! However now that I’m pregnant I make it even less because my million pillows that ensure I’m comfortable make the bed look silly even when it’s made. I’m a happy person though!

When I was a teenager my allergist told my mom my bed needed to be aired out. It’s been airing every day for the last 45 years. The duvet gets folded back over the end of the bed so it almost touches the floor. It looks tidy and intentional. I consider it a made bed, a bed made my way.

I make it 90% of the time when I get up. The other 10%, the husband was still in it when I left, so it gets made before I get back in at night. I will not, under any circumstances, sleep in an unmade bed. Feels icky. Like sleeping nude. [shudder!]

I do make my bed and always have done. At least I know I’ve done one thing right that day. And, nothing is worse than coming home on a Bad Day to a messy place–one more thing that is wrong with that day. So much of what makes up our lives is out of our control. At least I am in control of my bed! I feel I’m basically a happy person but didn’t know making my bed contributed to that happiness. Thanks for this interesting point of view.

When I was younger, I wouldn’t care, just throw the duvet over the jumble of sheets and not look back. Now, I make our bed every morning, sometimes the hubby helps. I do it after coffee and breakfast. I made it a habit after I started traveling a bit. It felt so good to get into a made bed in a hotel after a long day’s activity. The sheets weren’t crumpled, they felt cool and inviting and I dropped off to sleep quickly and slept well. So, I figured it would have the same results at home. I did, so I’m happy because I get a good nights rest. Plus, it makes the bedroom look neat and tidy and that makes me happy.

Yes. I have always made my bed, never needing to be told as a child probably because it was the ONLY thing that was completely mine in a family of 12 people. And I cherished it for the treasure it was and still is. And yes, I consider myself exceedingly happy because I practice gratitude. After all, the Roman and Egyptian queens never slept in anything so marvelous as this not rich American girl has.

I’m a veteran and initially got into the habit of making my bed during basic training. I got out of the habit during college. In my junior year, i moved into a house that had been built in 1865. It was creaky, creepy, had a ghost, and the most numerous occupants were spiders. The spiders liked my unmade bed and after suffering numerous spider bites, i started making my bed again in military fashion with hospital corners and tucked linens. After that, the spiders didn’t bother to get cozy in my bed and i’ve kept up the habit for the last 25 years. I don’t like getting into an unmade bed because i have the entirely rational fear that i’ll be bitten.

I always make my bed. It would disturb me to leave it a crumpled mess. It wouldn’t feel as cozy to slip into it at night….and spiders. My dear beau was not in the habit of making up his bed. When i would spend the night at his house, i would make it up for him while he cooked breakfast. Then he started making my bed when he slept at my house while i was cooking breakfast. Now, he makes up his bed even when i’m not there. He discovered he feels better about himself and more proud of his home by simply making the bed. This was my completely un-scientific study which is now published on the internet and may be referenced and cited as necessary.

I have always made my bed in the morning. A little less rigid on it now after 24 years of marriage with a hubby who could care less if it’s made, but even just pulling up the duvet and smoothing out the wrinkles makes me feel better.